


Gifts from the Sea

by Intrepid_Inkweaver



Series: Tales from Raven's Bones [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Original Character(s), Raven's Bones Guild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:54:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23981161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intrepid_Inkweaver/pseuds/Intrepid_Inkweaver
Summary: In which Jand Murelle adopts a baby, and Teluann tries very hard to talk them out of it.
Relationships: Jand Murelle/Teluann Mar Ishke
Series: Tales from Raven's Bones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799893
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Gifts from the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> You should know that I know virtually nothing about babies. The last baby I spent a significant amount of time around was my brother. When I was five. And Google can only get you so far in things like this, so please have your suspension of disbelief handy.

The clear night sky was a velvet blue-black curtain sprinkled with the the far-away twinkling of the stars as Jand Murelle stepped off of the _Ajmaq_ and onto the dock in the city of Xanne. He had to stop for a moment when he stepped onto land as it seemed to sway beneath his feet. He’d been at sea for a long time. The disorientation passed quickly, however, and he was well used to it.

The clean streets of Xanne were hushed this late at night, and without the crowds of people in the streets that would be present in the daylight hours, Jand could catch the scent of the wisteria blossoms that grew on trellises over many of the smaller streets drifting to him on the warm breeze. He was happy to be back in Xanne. His father had been born in the port city, and though he’d never lived there as a child, he had visited often. It had been several years since he’d been back, and although he was most at home on the deck of ship, and with his crew--his family, his pack--there would always be a part of his heart that dwelt in Xanne. He missed the pristine white walls, the colorful murals, the tall, decorated temples and the smell of corn tortillas wafting from the kitchens of every house.

A sudden, high-pitched cry interrupted his calm walk through the streets. He froze, instantly on alert, and scented the air carefully. The sound came again and led him over to a deep storm gutter that ran along the side of the street. He jumped down, expecting to find some unlucky animal caught in a grating. Instead, he found what appeared to be a wriggling pile of stained rags. When it cried again and then coughed, he reached out carefully to lift a cloth off the face of an infant.

The child paused for a second in it’s cries to look up at him quizzically before beginning to whimper. Quickly, he reached out to stroke it’s cheek and whispered soothingly, “Hey there. No need to cry, now, pup. I’m here, it’s going to be okay.” The baby quieted and held out it’s arms to him, so he gently lifted it up and cradled it in his arms. It appeared to be a human boy of about five months with a full head of magnificent dark brown curls. As soon as he was safe in Jand’s arms, the child stopped whimpering and curled in towards him, wrapping one of his tiny hands in Jand’s hair.

Jand stroked his cheek. “How did such a sweet little thing like you end up down here?” he murmured sadly. With his free hand, he reached out to rummage through the pile of rags for anything that might have been left there with the child to explain who he was or where he came from. His fingers snagged on a chain and he heard something metal clink against the concrete. It was a bronze medallion about the size of a scallop shell on a long chain. When he turned it over to look at the front, his breath caught in his throat and he nearly dropped it as though burned.

Were she a common sailor, she would bless herself and ask whatever deity she worshiped to intervene and protect her from the curse of bad luck that followed the symbol embossed upon the medallion. Even non-sailors would be unnerved at the sight of it, though none of them, sailor or not, truly knew the background behind it. It had devolved into something close to mere superstition. Jand knew it was more, and seeing it here and now filled her heart with dread. She looked from the medallion down at the dozing child in her arms with alarm.

If the baby truly was connected with the symbol, it could be very dangerous to keep him. A voice in her head that sounded oddly like her dear Teluann cautioned that she should leave the child here, pretend she never saw him. But then, Teluann and Jand disagreed on many things, the value of showing compassion to others being primary among them.

As she stood up, careful not to jostle the child, she shifted to wolf form so that her fur would keep the baby warm. He made a soft coo and curled further in to her chest. Her peaceful, carefree stride of not so long ago was gone now. She was now alert at every shadow, every movement and every unfamiliar scent. Whoever had abandoned the baby was likely still within the city, and if she were to meet them, she would not want to be caught off guard.

Teluann’s house was on the edge of the city, near the beach. The elven sorcerer was quite wealthy, and had managed to “convince” the former residents of the area around her large home to move away. As she approached the gate, Jand released her beast form and moved to knock on the door. The noise woke the baby, who did not cry, but merely snuffled against her chest, apparently somewhat put out at being woken.

It took a second, louder knock before Jand could hear Teluann’s irritated footsteps coming towards the door. It opened, and before she even looked to see who was there, Teluann snapped, “Who in the Infernal is disturbing me at this time of night? People in this city are supposed to be civilized enough to know not to come calling after the seventh hour of evening, if at all.”

Despite her protests of the lateness of the hour, it was quite clear that Teluann had not been sleeping. She was still fully dressed, her raven-black hair done up flawlessly, a hairpiece with several expensive quetzal feathers pinned behind her graceful ear. It had been several years since Jand had seen her, but her face was as unchanging as ever, with her smooth golden brown skin, too-high cheekbones, and large, slanted mahogany eyes. She had gotten jade beads set into her front two teeth since the last they’d seen each other, though.

Jand cocked her head to the side. “Do you greet all of your guests like that? No, don’t answer that, I know you do.”

Teluann finally looked to see exactly who it was that was standing on her doorstep. Upon recognition, her perfect black eyebrows climbed so far on her forehead that Jand feared they would be caught in her hairline. Much to Jand’s alarm, she reached out and grabbed Jand’s arm and yanked her into the house, closing the door behind her.

Once inside, Teluann rounded on her. “You up and leave me at a dig site _five years ago_ without so much as a _by-your-leave,_ Jand Murelle, and you have the _audacity_ to show up here and knock on my door at _three in the gods-damned morning_ and act like you never even--” She cut off, having apparently finally noticed the little bundle in Jand’s arms that was currently staring at her curiously. “What, in the name of all that is holy, is that?”

It was Jand’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “I know you haven’t dealt with such things, my dear, but surely you know what a baby looks like?” Teluann made a couple of noises that might have been aborted attempts at speech. Jand continued before she could find her voice. “And I did, actually, let you know I was leaving. Several times. It was hardly my fault you weren’t listening. Also, it’s been four years and three months, not five years since I left.”

Something in Teluann’s disgruntled expression told Jand that she’d known exactly how it had been and had rounded up for the drama. Finally, she managed to get some intelligible words out. “You brought a baby here? To me?”

“Relax, dear, I’m not going to make you touch him. I would like to see if he’s hungry, though. Do you have anything a baby could eat?”

Teluann stared at her with her mouth hanging open for a few seconds. “Are you serious?”

“Perfectly.”

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Fine. Fine. I guess you’ll tell me what’s going on eventually. Come, the kitchen is through here.” She turned away, but then paused. “Don’t babies drink milk?”

“Very astute, dear. This one is likely over five months, so he should be able to eat solid food now.”

“So…is he your’s then?”

Jand scoffed. “Does he look like mine?”

As though it hadn’t been clear from the first time she’d seen him, Teluann peeked over her shoulder at the child and frowned. “No, I suppose not.”

In the kitchen, Jand settled himself and the baby at the table while Teluann pulled out a jar of applesauce and put some in a bowl--far more than a baby could eat, but Jand didn’t comment. To the baby, he said, “How about something to eat, little one, hm? Would you like that?” He seemed to like being spoken to, because he let out a coo and reached for Jand’s face. Teluann handed him the bowl and settled into the chair across from him.

Putting a small amount of applesauce onto the spoon, Jand offered it carefully to the baby. He opened his mouth readily, and made a couple faces, but swallowed without spitting it out. Jand beamed. “Aren’t you a little star? Such a good little star!”

A couple minutes passed and Teluann continued to watch him feed the baby with her mouth twisted. Jand looked up at her over top the child’s curly head and said, “Your face is going to stick like that if you’re not careful.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ve said that before and it never has.”

“You’re blessed with the gift of unchanging skin.”

Teluann huffed. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why you’re here in the middle of the night? With a human baby? Or are you just going to eat all my applesauce and leave me in suspense forever?”

Jand chuckled. “I suppose you’ve been quite patient. You must have been working on that since the last time I was here.”

She sniffed, affronted. “I have always been patient.”

“Uh huh.”

“...ish.”

Jand laughed and spooned another little bit into the baby’s waiting mouth. “I arrived in Xanne just tonight, not two hours ago. My crew is taking a month of shore leave here. I was planning on coming to visit you tomorrow.”

Teluann looked down at her hands. “What ship are you on now? Still the _Ajmaq_?” she asked, feigning casualness.

Jand’s mouth pulled down and he answered, “Aye, still the _Ajmaq._ The sea hasn’t claimed her yet.”

Teluann nodded, still without looking at him. She cleared her throat and said, “So, that doesn’t explain how you ended up with a baby between the docks and here. Unless you had the baby on the ship. Or it emerged from the sea.”

Jand hesitated. “You…may not be entirely incorrect with that assumption,” he said uncomfortably. “I heard the child crying not far from the docks. He was left in a pile of rags down in the storm gutter.” He pulled the medallion out of his pocket and handed it over. “This was with him.”

Taking the medallion and turning over in her hands, Teluann froze when she saw the symbol on the front before dropping it to the table with a clang that made the baby flinch. She stared at it as though she expected it to come alive and strike her and then moved her gaze up to the baby, who was watching her intently. “You brought it here? To my house, Jand?” She looked up at him. “You should have left it where you found it! What makes you think I want that thing here?”

Jand glared at her. It was nothing he hadn’t expected, but it still made him angry. “He’s a baby, Teluann,” he said coldly. The child was looking up at him now, and he gently ruffled his hair before returning his attention to Teluann. “Wherever he may have come from, whoever his parents happen to be, he is _innocent._ He is _helpless._ And he was left in a gutter to die.”

“You don’t know what he is, or what he could do!”

Jand shook his head. “He isn’t a monster, Teluann. As far as I can tell, he’s completely human. And if he happens to grow into something else,” he shrugged, “I’ll deal with that when it happens. I’m not going to abandon this child.”

“Your damned compassion is going to get you killed,” Teluann said bitterly.

“That’s a possibility that I can live with.”

They were quiet for a few minutes and the baby, who was currently playing with Jand’s hair, let out a yawn. She smiled down at him and caressed his cheek with her knuckles. “Are you sleepy, little star? Do you need to lay down, huh?” She looked up at Teluann. “Do you have somewhere quiet I could lay him down? And would you mind keeping an eye on him for a little while? I wanted to go back to where I found him and see I can’t find out a little more about where--and maybe who--he came from.”

Teluann stared at her with an incredulousness that wouldn’t have been rivaled if Jand had spontaneously grown another head. “You want _me_ to look after your mystery baby while you jaunt off to only Chaac knows where? _Me?”_

Jand rolled her eyes. “Yes, you. Unfortunately, there’s no one else in this city that I trust more. Besides, he’ll be asleep. It’s unlikely you’ll have to interact with him at all, beyond keeping an eye on him.”

“And what happens if…something _else_ happens?” she asked, glaring suspiciously at the sleepy child.

“Teluann, you’re a two hundred year old master sorcerer. I’m confident you can handle a five month old baby for an hour or two, even if he does turn out to have some kind of dark powers. Which I really don’t think he does.”

Teluann frowned down at the table for a few moments before sighing and standing up. “Fine. Follow me. We can put some blankets down in the study for him. The carpet there is soft and I’ll be able to work while I watch him.”

Jand smiled. “You hear that, little star? Auntie Teluann is going to stay with you while I go and see if I can’t find out where you came from.” She booped his nose and he grabbed hold of her finger.

“Auntie Teluann. Chaac, how do I always let them drag me into this nonsense?” Teluann muttered under her breath as she left the room. Jand’s smile grew.

They put out a few layers of blankets on the cushioned carpet in the study and laid the baby down. He went out like a light without a peep. Jand ruffled his curls affectionately before quietly leaving the room. From habit, she checked her shortsword, Na Dealga, and made certain it was loose in it’s scabbard. Teluann watched her as she did this.

“You still have it then?”

Jand raised an eyebrow at her. “Of course. You still have Na Rósanna?”

“Of course.”

“Did you ever figure out how the enchantment that connects them works?”

“It kind of hard to do that when I only have one half of the enchantment.”

“Fair enough. Maybe you can take a look at them while I’m here.”

“Maybe I will.”

Jand turned toward the door, and Teluann caught her arm. “Jand, I fear for you,” she said softly.

“Yes, yes, I know, I’m reckless and I don’t think things through and I care too much about other people and it’s only going to get me killed. You’ve given me this speech a thousand times before, and it’s never had the impact that you wanted. I’ll have the child out of your house come morning. You need not deal with him ever again.”

Teluann looked offended and crossed her arms. “I was just going to tell you to be careful, in case you run into something nasty!”

Jand looked at her shrewdly and said, “No you weren’t.”

She huffed. “Okay, no, I wasn’t. But I’ve been right before. I know the type of messes you fall into, and you’ve fallen into some bad ones. And I still don’t think that you’ve been in so far over your head then as you could get now. This is something neither of us should interfere with.”

Rubbing her temples, Jand answered, “Teluann, we don’t even really know what _this_ is. We don’t know anything about what is going on here. Maybe it would have been safer to leave him there in that gutter, but it wouldn’t have been right, and it wouldn’t have been something I ever could have lived with.”

With a sigh, Teluann reached up and put her hand on Jand’s cheek. “I know, my love. I know. And, for what it’s worth, you don’t have to leave in the morning. Whatever might be coming, it’s best if we face it together. I’ll make up one of the extra bedrooms for you. And I’ll…see if I can find some books about…babies.”

Jand chuckled. “You may need to be a little bit more specific with the subject matter.”

“Right. Human babies, then.”

Shaking her head, Jand laughed. “You are truly ridiculous. Why do I keep coming back to you?”

Sniffing, Teluann arched an eyebrow. “Clearly it’s my superior intellect and fantastic fashion sense.”

“Right, there is that. The jade is a nice touch, by the way.”

“You think so? I got it done last year.”

“Yes, it’s very fetching.”

Teluann leaned down and pressed a kiss to Jand’s lips. “Flatterer.”

“You always fall for it.”

“Hm, maybe I should look into that.”

When Jand headed to the door, Teluann said, “Be careful. Please. With whatever you find.”

Turning back to her, Jand grinned. “Who knows, maybe this is all a big misunderstanding and I’ll find some frantic parents searching for their stolen baby.”

“We can always hold out hope.”

* * * *

The pile of rags still sat undisturbed in the gutter where she’d left it, of course. No one had come to investigate, or to find the lost child. Kneeling down, she sifted through the rags more thoroughly this time, looking for anything she may have missed. She did come up with a couple of dried and pressed flowers that looked somewhat like purple daisies. She didn’t recognize their species, and folded them into a piece of one of the rags and tucked it into her pocket, making a note to ask Teluann if she knew what they were.

She shifted smoothly into wolf form and sniffed the air. There were two clear trails leading from the rags--her own, from earlier, and another leading along the gutter and into the tunnels below the streets. As she followed it, she noted that whoever had left the trail had been careful to conceal their passage, dodging sections of floor covered in mud to avoid leaving footprints, and brushing debris over the parts where it had been unavoidable.Their scent trail, however, was clear as day. There was a sharp scent of blood mixed with seaweed that she could make out easily, even over the smell of mud and filth and rotting leaves.

The trail in the tunnels led her all the way out to the beach, the sound of the crashing waves echoing strangely against the walls. The smell of blood grew stronger as she went, and she drew Na Dealga from it’s sheath. Not far away, a human man sat propped against one of the rocks, clutching a bleeding wound in his side. While she watched, his back shook as coughed up blood into his hands. Determining that this man was probably not a threat to him, Jand let go of his wolf form, but did not sheath Na Dealga.

He approached carefully, and as he got closer, he could make out enough of the man’s underlying scent to be able to tell that this was not the man who had left the baby in the gutter, though his clothes were made of a similar cloth to that of the rags and there was something familiar about his scent. He also noted the man’s curly dark hair.

When Jand was close enough for the man to hear his movement, the man said weakly, “Have you come to finish me off? You needn’t have; I’ll be gone soon enough.” His breathing was labored, and Jand could tell he’d lost a lot of blood.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” said Jand, moving close enough that the man could see him through the darkness. He knelt down in front of him. “I may be able to heal that, if you’ll let me?”

“I won’t stop you, stranger. Are you a cleric?”

“No, I’m a monk, but I have some healing skill.”

He coughed. “I fear I’m beyond the help of any but the strongest magics, but you’re welcome to try.” He moved his hands away from the wound, and Jand carefully moved his shirt so that he could get a good look at it. It was deep, and had likely punctured at least one major organ. Pressing his hands to the wound, Jand began to attempt to gather the man’s life energies to begin the healing process.

“What’s your name?” he asked to distract him from the pain.

“Aybrionn. Aybrionn Mefus,” he coughed. “Your’s?”

“Jand Murelle.”

“Thank you, Jand.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Jand said quietly enough that Aybrionn couldn’t hear him. His life energies had dwindled fast, and were slipping through Jand’s metaphorical fingers as fast as he could gather them. He tried to press his own energy into Aybrionn's body, but the wound resisted. In the end, with sweat soaking his brow and his hands shaking, all Jand could do was cut the pain off, leaving the wound itself unhealed.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything more than dull the pain,” Jand said quietly.

Aybrionn sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the rock behind him. “That’s more than enough. How did you come to find me down here?”

“I found a child up in the city, in a storm gutter. I wanted to know where he came from, and the trail led me here.”

At this, Aybrionn’s eyes flew open. “He’s alive? My son, is he alive?” He reached up and grasped Jand’s arm with a surprising amount of strength.

Jand put his hand over top of Aybrionn’s. “Yes, he’s alive. He’s safe. I left him with a friend.”

Aybrionn leaned his head back again and a tear rolled down his cheek as he smiled at the sky. “My baby boy is alive,” he whispered.

“How did this happen? Why was he taken from you? Who did this?”

He shook his head. “You’re better off not knowing anything about it. _He’s_ better off not knowing. I tried to get him away, and I didn’t make it. But he can still stay away. He can still be safe.”

“But who are they?”

He shook his head. “To speak of them is to let them know of you. Please protect my son. I couldn’t. Please, promise me you won’t tell him about this. Nothing about this, not even my name. Please.”

Jand hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. “I promise you, Aybrionn Mefus, that I will protect your child, and I swear to never tell him of you, or what happened here tonight.”

Aybrionn nodded and relaxed, his grip on Jand’s arm loosening. “Thank you,” he said, his voice weakening further.

Jand sat with him a while longer, and as his breathing started to fade, he said quietly, “I will pray for your soul to be taken to the sea.”

Wheezing, Aybrionn answered, “Don’t think…I deserve it…”

As his eyes dulled, Jand whispered, “I will pray for you anyways, Aybrionn Mefus.” and reached up to close his eyes.

There was a piece of sailcloth washed up on the beach nearby that Jand used to wrap Aybrionn’s body. As he was weighting it with stones, he noticed silver glinting at the man’s neck. He pulled out a finely crafted pendant in the shape of a flower, possibly the same type that had been in the baby’s wrappings. Jand put it in his pocket, to give to the child when he was old enough. He at least would have one thing of his father, though he would never know it.

After sinking Aybrionn’s body beneath the waves, Jand returned to shore and sat down to watch the sun rise over the horizon, and chanted a prayer to the sea, that she may take one more soul today safely to the other side. Finally, he stood and wiped his face. Carefully, he sniffed the air. He may have made the promise to not tell the baby about his father or his killers, but that wouldn’t stop him from hunting them down.

The scent trail, though, was completely gone. It shouldn’t have been. He circled around the area, searching for it, but coming up with nothing. It was as though it had been erased, probably by magic. Frustrated, he kicked at the sand and growled deep in his throat. Teluann might know a way to track them with magic, though, so he returned to her house.

When he arrived, Teluann was asleep at her desk in the study, her cheek pressed down on a book, her hair and hairpiece askew, snoring softly. The baby had not yet woken on the floor nearby. Jand gently poked at the elf’s arm and watched in amusement as she jerked backward hard enough to nearly send the chair toppling. As she opened her mouth to yell at him indignantly, he shushed her and indicated the sleeping child. She glared at him, stood up stiff-backed, and marched out of the room, no doubt trying to gather up the shreds of her wounded dignity. Her hairpiece bobbed sadly up and down as she walked, hanging on by only a few strands of hair.

In the kitchen, she prepared two cups of tea, finally having pulled out the hairpiece and set it on the counter, as Jand took his seat at the table. She set a cup in front of him and took a seat. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Somewhat. But not really.”

“And that means what, exactly?”

“I found the child’s father.”

Teluann nearly choked on her tea. “How is that not finding what you were looking for?”

“He was dying. Someone had stabbed him, stolen his child, and left him there. He wouldn’t tell me who they were, though he definitely knew. He made me promise to tell the baby nothing of any of this. To pretend that I have no idea where he came from.” He pulled the flowers and the necklace from his pocket and handed them over. “Do you recognize what kind of flowers these are?”

Teluann picked up the necklace first, and then examined the dried flowers carefully. “Asters, I believe. Not a species that grows around here, though.” She gestured at the necklace. “This was his, I assume? Did you find out his name?”

“Aybrionn Mefus.”

She frowned and rubbed her chin. “It’s not one I recognize, although that surname is a little strange. From an old dialect of Kellm, if I’m not mistaken. ‘Strawberry’ I think.”

“Might give us some clues. I tried to track the killers after I gave Aybrionn’s body to the sea, but they were using some kind of magic to mask themselves or something. The trail just cut off.”

Teluann pursed her lips. “Maybe that’s a good thing. You promised to not tell the child of his past. If he truly is just a human babe whose parents were caught up with the wrong people, maybe we should just let it go. Drop it. Don’t invite anymore trouble. Do we really need to know?”

Jand huffed through her nose. “You, turning down a puzzle? That’s not like you.”

Before Teluann could reply, a cry from the study cut her off. They both moved off to check on the baby. Coming into the room and sitting next to him, Jand said, “Why hello, little star, did you have a good sleep?” He immediately stopped crying and held out his arms to her. Teluann watched her play with him for a few minutes.

“You’re really planning on raising him.”

“I am.”

She coughed and looked away. “Well, my offer of a room is still open. I suppose we’ll have to see about getting him…baby…things…”

“Wait, you’re serious?”

“Of course! When have you ever known me to joke? Look at this--I even made up a list of helpful books.” She pulled a folded bit of parchment out of her shirt and handed it over. It was indeed a list of books about parenting and caring for infants. Jand looked up at her incredulously.

“You’re serious?”

“You’re repeating yourself.”

“You? Want to take care of a baby? A baby you didn’t want anywhere near you a few hours ago?”

“Well, I still don’t particularly want to touch him--”

“Why??”

“Babies are kind of disgusting.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Teluann pursed her lips and looked away. Quietly, she answered, “Because I thought it might make you want to find a way to stay. At least for a while. I mean, I don’t think a ship is good place for a baby--”

Jand’s expression softened and she moved up to place a kiss on Teluann’s lips. “I miss you too, you know. When I’m gone.”

Teluann pressed their foreheads together. “I wish you didn’t leave. I know why you do. I know you have to. But maybe we can fix it. Figure something out.”

Jand shook her head. “I don’t know that we can. And I don’t know that I would want it fixed.”

“ _Why?_ No, don’t answer that. I know why.”

“You could always have come with me.”

She laughed. “Yes, I’m sure I’d make a great sailor.” Jand laughed too. Just then, the baby made a noise demanding attention, so Jand sat back down on the floor, this time with her back against the couch so Teluann could stroke her hair. They sat quietly for a few minutes before Jand spoke.

“He needs a name.”

“What about Aybrionn?”

“No, I promised his father that he would never even know his name.”

Teluann paused in stroking her hair to think. “Well then…how about Maes? After your zazie?”

“Hmm…I like that idea. What do you think of that little star? What do you think of Maes?” She tickled his belly and he squealed with delight.

Teluann raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s a stamp of approval.” Jand laughed. “So, are you still planning on going after his father’s killers?”

Jand turned to look at her. “I am. I don’t think I can just leave it like that. But I will promise you one thing--I won’t get involved beyond finding out who they are and how they're involved with the symbol unless I absolutely have to. I don’t want Maes to lose another parent.”

Teluann sighed. “Well. That’s something I guess. Now, I think you should teach me how to hold him. That seems like information I should know.”

“Oh, sea save me.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Jand sees random baby: *immediately* I am now a parent and this is my child.  
> Teluann: What the fuck is that thing.  
> A couple notes:  
> -Na Dealga and Na Rósanna mean "the thorns" and "the roses" and Jand and Teluann found them on a dig (Na Rósanna is staff).  
> -There are a lot of details I haven't quite worked out yet. Pretty much anything the characters don't know, I don't know either. I imagine I'll figure it out as they do.  
> -I am using 'zazie' as a gender-neutral term for a parent. It is also what Maes will call Jand.  
> -It took Teluann a good month before she learned to hold Maes properly.


End file.
